Knowledge of activities in the area

It is very important to identify the activities likely to affect the conservation of the species to be protected. Here, we have identified several sources of nuisance. This text deals only with the nuisance caused by jet-skiing. To confirm the nuisance caused by these machines in our area, we recorded the noise propagated during normal use. Finally, the bibliography enabled us to confirm the nuisance caused.

Knowledge of measurement/mapping activities and resources.

Confirmation that jet-skiing is harmful to the conservation of a coastal group of bottlenose dolphins.

Product Innovation and Development Using Applied Technology

The continuation of organizing every group of the village is to hold a training and development of post farm production such as improving quality of raw materials, packaging, marketing, and research and development. Applicable technology (i.e. fish farming intensification (biofloc), fish food production using pepper and rice farm waste supported mechanical processing, organic fertilizer using processed waste of fish farming, etc) is required and it has to be simple technology so that the people can operate, maintain, and even build the machine itself. Widening the range of market and technology information can be obtained from training events and various exhibitions. Up until the final stage that the local people are fully capable to execute and develop themselves. The future evolving technology that is going to be applied in the village has to be controlled so it doesn't exceed its biocapacity(an estimation of capacity given to an ecosystem/biological productive area to absorbs waste and produce natural resources).

  • Executing initial research of post farm product development and application of applied technology
  • Widening the distribution of those products to big cities nearby.
  • Product development with various practical and modern packaging
  • Green packaging development to eco-friendly material/plastic subtitute material (i.e using plastic subtitute package, such as, plastic from sea weed, maizena, etc).
  • Product innovation (i.e. powder, essential oil, etc) to create more variety of products and increasing brand value
  • Network expansion to export market
  • Understand which local companies we're going to collaborate with and regional distribution line.
  • Discover various organic community and product innovation, green packaging innovation, and applied technology to support these.
  • Enriching product and market knowledge and its legal barrier so we can improve human capacity to overcome those challenges.
  • Using up to date media as marketing strategies (online marketing) so increasing information tech savviness is mandatory for villagers.
Establishment and Development Support of Village Level Organizations.

From the execution of the participatory mapping and creation of medium term planning, it’s required to have short term follow up action plans such as:


1. Making the union of farmers, village owned company (Pondok Lada), research group is legally recognized both locally and nationally,

2. Support annual strategies that based on medium term planning, such as:

a. Farmers union is to increase the annual harvest volume, not expand their agriculture in water source protection area, using organic pesticide and fertilizer, grading pepper berries to be sold to the company, Pondok Lada.

b. The company buy graded pepper berries with the fair price that is disscussion with farmers union, producing post harvest product as a instant product, gradually transform to eco-packaging to reduce the impact of plastic waste.

c. Research group to teach how to grade pepper with global standard, teaching how to integrate each type of farming (pepper, fishery) by supplying each other nutrition.

 

This annual planning that is arranged by village has to be synchronized to district and national medium and long term planning in order to have better support from the government.

  • Legalization of formed groups (the company, research groups) regionally to nationally.
  • Creating key persons and support system for regeneration of those groups.
  • Synchronization of annual strategies of those groups to village administration medium term planning, medium and long term regional to national government level planning with collaborations with other local movements, academics, start-up companies, NGOs, etc.
  • Coordination and data sharing with related government institutions to gain support from the planning that is arranged by village.
  • Understand how the line of coordination and legal system works in different regions
  • Collected of various policies, (i.e long term agricultural development plan from Ministry of Agriculture, long term agricultural and energy development plant from province level) to be synchronized to village development plan from each level of government, i.e (National or Regional) Planning and Development Ministry, Village Empowernment Ministry (regional), Agriculture Ministry.
  • Know the key person of each sector from the government, NGOs, academics, i.e. head of directorate of development rural area in National or Regional) Planning and Development Ministry.
Participatory Mapping combined with Integrated Geographical Information System

Merancang Ilir is located on the side of Segah River in Berau District, East Kalimantan, Indonesia. The river is one of the biggest rivers in Berau. It is usually used by palm oil and coal mining company barge ships to carry Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and coal. Majority of the villages administration area across this river is acquired by those companies up to 80% of its administration area. But Merancang Ilir is a unique village, the people still believe that without those companies the people still have prosperity through agriculture. They also believe that by letting those companies in, it will not answer how to increase economic equality. To support those dreams we intend to help them to be economically independent in agriculture system. Before we begin to act, we need to do participatory mapping to gain more detailed knowledge of the current potential and problems of the village. Using GIS and conducting its basic training for the villagers, the people can establish strategies of development based on sustainable agriculture and agribusiness.

  • The village and its administration understand the concept and basic technique of mapping its potential resources after GIS basic training was held by us.
  • From the results of the mapping, the village understands how to construct a medium term plan.
  • Village administration understand about rules of village development area (conservation area, agribusiness area, and research area).
  • The villagers understand the concept and the mission from those plans and become active actors for their execution.
  • Using the most familiar and simplest words and deconstructing complex ideas into bricks of simple example and analogy to be explained to local people.
  • The locals understand how to construct a mapping plan, such as which data they are gathering, how to compile those data, and how to make basic analysis of those data and implement it into local policies and village development plan.
  • Besides spatial (general information of geographical condition and administrative border), social (general information of population profile), and sectoral mapping (specific information of village potential or condition such as agriculture, education, health, etc), key leader mapping must be executed in order to run the program smoothly; in addition, the next person in charge/leader must be from the local community to ensure the future sustainability of the program.
  • Understand which government agencies need to be collaborated with and how to establish a good relationship between the village and those agencies.
Strengthening water governance and leadership for adaptation

There are several governance challenges in río Paz, such as institutional weak presence and weak institutional coordination which drives to the mismanagement of the river and the coastal ecosystems.

 

IUCN,  UNES and local communities  proposed a buiding block to ensure the full implementation of the solution. The process implies strenthening and articulation of governance local structurers by:

 

- identification of leaders

- social awareness

- consolidation of local groups such as the Istatén Association, the Aguacate Microbasin Committee, women's groups and water boards.

 

Governance structures develop integral operative working plans, that respond to local needs and improve socio-political and advocacy capacities. The advocacy seeks to (i) persuade the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (MARN) to establish sanctions for those who incur in prohibited fishing practices, and to demand greater responsibility in the use of water and management of liquid waste by the sugar industry; and (ii) request the Ministry of Agriculture (MAG) to monitor the water use of this industry (i.e. the permits extended) and to introduce water rates that are proportional to the volume used. The case has already been brought forth to the Environmental Court and is waiting for a resolution.

  • Presence and trust of the local partner NGO, UNES in the project region.
  • Collaborative and facilitative approach with communities - as partners instead of beneficiaries.
  • Learning from communities
  • Strengthening of local groups. Local groups have been key actors in the work of identifying community problems, and then planning and implementing the solutions through collective actions. 
  • For ecosystem restoration practices to be successful and sustainble, they must be accompanied by advocacy and dissemination actions that reinforce these EbA initiatives. These actions are particularly necessary in the lower basin of the Paz River, due to the existance of the environmental conflicts in the territory around water and the variety of actors involved.
  • Organizing an advocacy agenda is a powerful tool for communities, especially if it contains specific proposals that aim to achieve the implementation of existing environmental regulations.
  • Stakeholders need permanent negotiation spaces for ensuring continuous dialogue on natural resources.
Implementation of mangrove restoration EbA measures

Under the leadership of the Istatén Association and the El Aguacate Microbasin Committee, the following EbA measures were implemented in favour of local livelihoods and their resilience to climate change.

Hereby, communities implemented their own solutions to the problems they identified, under the motto: Paz River: Life, Refuge and Food.

The  measures included:

 

  • Unblocking and eliminating sediments from mangrove channels to allow fresh water to enter and restore optimum salinity levels.
  • Reforestation of degraded mangrove areas (as a result of indiscriminate felling /livestock grazing).
  • Community surveillance of key sites, with persons responsible assigned rotationally, in order to prevent mangrove felling and excessive species extraction, and ensure the protection of newly planted seedlings in reforested areas.
  • Design and implementation of a Local Plan for Sustainable Use (PLAS) that regulates the extraction from the mangrove of fish, crustaceans (crabs and shrimp) and mammals (periods, quantities and practices), for sustainable species management.

These measures seek to increase and manage the breeding area of ​​those species of greatest economic interest and relevance for food. In addition, mangrove restoration has improved protection against storms and waves.

Joint implementation together with community development associations facilitate decision-making and collective mangrove actions.

  • Istatén Association comprises 3 communities (Garita Palmera, El Tamarindo, y Bola de Monte). It was created in 2011 with the purpose of community mangrove surveillance.
  • Aguacate river Micro watershed Committee, created in 2012, works on environmental challenges with a basin approach. The group comprises 40 local representatives.
  • It is key to support restoration efforts with biophysical studies that provide inputs for monitoring and evaluation and better decision-making regarding the intervention sites or the measures adopted, particularly the channel dredging and reforestation actions. It is also key to complement this with the empirical knowledge of the communities, generating a base of technical-scientific-social evidence that is pertinent and sustainable.
"Action learning" and monitoring to increase capacities and knowledge

Action learning is a process that involves the implementation of EbA activities, coupled with a practical capacity building program for scaling up results. The process, in addition to enhance local communities' capacities and skills, generates evidence on EbA benefits through the implementation of a monitoring system aiming at policy makers. Some elements and steps in the process are:

  1. Participatory assessment of communities’ socio-environmental vulnerability.
  2. Prioritization of mangrove restoration sites, as an EbA measure, based on assessment and in complementation to traditional knowledge.
  3. Participatory monitoring and evaluation of EbA effectiveness to food security. The research (22 families sample) aims to understand the benefits of restoration on their livelihoods.
  4. Capacity building process to strengthen natural resource management, local advocacy and adaptive capacities, through:
  • Trainings and exchanges of experience on adaptation to climate change, watershed and water management, and sustainable mangrove management.
  • Technical support provided to the communities, to jointly undertake mangrove forest restoration.
  • Joint monitoring activities. With tangible evidence, communities are able to raise awareness and gain political advocacy capacities and access to financial resources.
  • Due to a weak governmental presence locally, the communities have promoted their own self-organization through Development Associations and other local structures (e.g. Environmental Committees), making room also for leadership and mobilization by women, all of which result in increased social capital.
  • Working with both with formal community's (e.g. through Development Associations) and other local civil society  groups (e.g. Microbasin Committee) is key, as these entities have a direct interest in the success of the EbA measures to be implemented.
  • Local stakeholders can facilitate dissemination of the measures, and with it, their replication, as occurred with upstream communities in the Aguacate River basin, where takeholders became interested in the measures implemented downstream and proposed the creation of a broader forum (a 'Mangrove Alliance') for the entire Salvadoran coast.
Knowing and protecting the home range of a sensitive species

The first step in this solution is to know exactly the home range of the species to be protected (in this case, Tursiops truncatus). It was therefore necessary to carry out participatory science actions, integrating observation data from tourism companies and setting up a network of hydrophones. Park staff were then trained to observe the bottlenose dolphin. In particular, they learned to detect the animal's activity according to its behavior (hunting, social interactions, resting, etc.). This knowledge was then mapped.

Means of acquiring knowledge - human, material and financial resources

Competence of the management team

Ability to network with research organizations.

The means of observation must evolve, as bottlenose dolphins are sensitive to the presence of an observer team, and their behavior changes when the team is present.

Conservation fund

As a strategy of connection and contribution of the citizenship, because in the first edition (2013) We were able to finance all expenses, a conservation fund was generated from the collection of the cost of the registration of the event, the fund was delivered to the Promoter Group CPY and it was invested in conservation actions and sustainable use of the territory, with the fund was bought trap cameras for monitoring biodiversity.
This proposal was not sustainable for following editions, due to the considerable increase of the participation and the associated costs, currently we use the fee of the registrations to complete the event financing.

Have an emblematic conservation project in the region.
Having achieved the total financing of the initiative in its first year.
To have a permanent governance space (Cooperation System and CPY promoter group)

It is necessary to devote greater effort to the raising of economic resources to maintain the conservation fund.
To allocate the money raised in local projects, helps to strengthen the relationship between the promoter group and the community.
Having an external institution that helps finance 100% of the event, allows the creation of the conservation fund.

Financing management

The Yawi Sumak bike-trip beyond a recreational and sporting event has an environmental awareness objective, it has achieved the interest and economic support of Local Governments (Prefecture of Zamora Chinchipe, Parish Boards), International Cooperation (German Cooperation GIZ), and private business (Maxred Diseños).
For this reason, the cost is subsidized and symbolic. Cyclist pays approximately 40% of the real value of the event, which has contributed significantly to the success in the call. The participant for that fee gets: mobilization, transport of bicycles, food (breakfast, cold sandwiches and lunch), jersey, buff, participation medal, hydration, fruit, prize draw, traffic control, medical assistance and mechanical assistance.
In the last edition there was a difference for men ($ 20) and women ($ 15) as an positive incentive to achieve greater participation of women.

Generate an environmental message (conservation, connectivity) beyond a recreational and sports activity to achieve the interest of international cooperation
Having achieved a great participation of cyclists from the beginning, which is gradually increasing, which has captured the interest of private companies
To have a permanent governance space (Cooperatio System - CPY promoter group) for the management of local government resources.

Private companies are willing to support innovative ideas, as long as they seek common interest and call  participation of a big group of people
The bicycle has a lot of acceptance (to be bikefriendly is cool), for example, public and private entities through transport, ecological, recreational, accessible and social cohesion.
Managing resources in institutions will become easier when they have an orientation on environmental issues, in this case the local Prefect is an indigenous from Saraguro ethnic group, he is a nature advocate who in 2009 through of an local law   where established Zamora Chinchipe province as "Lung of Mother Earth, Source of Water and Life"